Just a short walk in the Leicestershire countryside with a music festival, a cricket match, weirs, a Lancaster bomber, threatening signs and a pub.
From the Guardian: Theresa May has said she had no regrets about calling the early election that stripped her of a parliamentary majority...This is not true. Of course, Theresa May regrets losing her majority, revitalising the Labour Party and being forced to dispense with the services of her two closest advisers. Everyone knows that Theresa May regrets losing her majority, revitalising the Labour Party and being forced to dispense with the services of her two closest advisers. Theresa May knows that everyone knows that Theresa May regrets losing her majority, revitalising the Labour Party and being forced to dispense with ...
"The important thing to understand about right-wing libertarianism is that it is a very eccentric viewpoint. It looks mainstream because it has a number of well-funded think-tanks pushing its agenda and its adherents are over-represented in politics and the media. The public, though, have never swallowed it." Flip Chart Fairy Tales says the dream of a shrunken state is over. Helen Brown Coverdale asks why we are not concerned that prison doesn't work. Community groups are organising to reverse the tide of pub closures, reports Rupert Jones. Alison Chandra has some startling things to say on the cost of healthcare ...
I'm a great fan of Buffer, a simple and free tool that lets you schedule tweets and Facebook updates (both for profiles and pages) in advance – but which automatically times them for slots when they are likely to get the most response. That is really handy when you want a message to be seen or acted on, but it isn't too time sensitive. You can manually schedule messages with many other tools, but Buffer takes the extra step of letting you set up a series of prime time slots and then it automatically puts each message you schedule into ...
Our "almost leader", Vince Cable is certainly getting himself noticed this week. He had the right wing press spluttering with outrage with this comparison in a New Statesman interview: So how did he react to his former cabinet colleague Theresa May condemning "citizens of nowhere" in her Conservative conference speech last year? "I thought that particular phrase was quite evil. It could've been taken out of Mein Kampf," he replies. "I think that's where it came from, wasn't it? 'Rootless cosmopolitans'? It was out of character for her." It's not Godwin's Law if it's true, now, is it? He's been ...
Here is Deputy Leader Jo Swinson's message for Pride 2017. The text is below: Pride is a colourful, energetic celebration of freedom, love and acceptance. Each year I am amazed as thousands of people of all sexualities take to the streets in the name of freedom and equality. I am proud to stand with the LGBT community in the continuous fight for a more open, tolerant and united society. This year's theme "Love Happens Here", reminds us that we ought to celebrate love wherever we find it and defiantly oppose the forces of bigotry, hate and division. This is an ...
I can't remember if I mentioned that I was co-opted back onto the Parish Council last year somewhat unexpectedly. At least, I hadn't sought to return, nor had I expected to be asked to do so. You know how these things are. But I was, and it was (and is) nice to be back. I was particularly delighted at our Annual Meeting, to be nominated as Vice Chair, a position I happily accepted, even if it involved very little actual effort. Machala, our Chair, is very good - brisk with the agenda but keen to allow Councillors to participate and ...
I went to see Wonder Woman last weekend in my local cinema. I haven't been following the DC movies recently — the last I saw was The Dark Knight Rises five years ago — and went into it pretty unspoiled with no expectations. I really enjoyed it, and heartily recommend it to everyone. Spoiler alert! I had no idea that the film is largely set during the closing weeks of the first world war, in November 1918, with almost all of the second half set in a fictionalised Belgium. Although we Belgians have contributed greatly to the comics tradition, we're ...
Whatever the official Corbynista line, there is no doubt that out in the country a number of the Labour Party leader's followers are intent on delivering a more sympathetic, and by definition more Europhobe cohort of MPS. The latest example of this targeting of known refuseniks and dissidents appears in the Guardian. They report that Labour MPs who have been critical of Jeremy Corbyn have been banned from the official reception of the Durham Miners' Gala for the second year running: Alan Cummings, the secretary of the Durham Miners' Association, said "quite a few" Labour MPs were not welcome on ...
Sat 8th
11:34
Don't sign up to a Ruritanian costume drama played out to esoteric rules- a look at my Mayoral year
I have been surprised by the number of people who have asked me to post the contribution I made at the Mayor Making. So here are my notes: Congratulations to the new Mayor and his wife Wendy I would particularly like to thank my wife and three daughters who have been a great support Council staff- esp Mike Hassett. Kevin and Stephen (my immediate predecessors) I know share my view; Mike is conscientious to a fault, 100% reliable, determined to do his best and takes great pride in his work. Amongst all the chaos of the last year, he was ...
Vince Cable has insisted that Britain may never leave the EU, once the public is faced with the stark choice of staying in or crashing out without a comprehensive Brexit deal... "I think it is right to aim for Britain remaining in the single market and customs union and retaining all of the collaborative arrangements around research and environmental standards. They are things we should be fighting for. "But it may be that at the end of it, we are faced with a stark choice between crashing out of the EU with a no deal or a very bad deal, ...
Fri, 12:55: RT @worldcon75: A list of attending #Worldcon75 members who have given permission to publish their names can now be seen at https://t.co/hS... Fri, 12:55: RT @davidallengreen: Well, there is one obvious way this could be done. https://t.co/XEDSKxTOaF Fri, 12:56: Brexit: No ordinary third country (PDF) https://t.co/ktg3tF8P6c More sensible analysis from @AndrewDuffEU. Fri, 15:15: RT @worldcon75: Eight days to go! Online voting in #TheHugoAwards close at 23:59 Pacific Standard Time on 15 July 2017! https://t.co/ZbsOL... Fri, 16:05: New York's memorials to the Civil War https://t.co/9djDTDVPoR (from 2011) Fri, 20:48: 'Game of Thrones' Season 7 Peril-o-Meter: Who Dies Next? https://t.co/WIMyTzsZfD ...
miss_s_b | The Blood is the Life for 07-07-2017 I posted The Blood is the Life for 07-07-2017 to my dreamwidth blog France will 'ban all petrol and diesel vehicles by 2040' | The Independent Extreme Political Attitudes May Stem From an Illusion of Understanding - Association for Psychological Science Disabled MP forced to miss Commons debates because he has nowhere to sit I mean crikey, they manage priority seating on trains and busses, they should have it in parliament too. How a feminist critique of my sci-fi novel improved my writing. "The mistakes I'd made weren't huge, but they ...
We Liberal Democrats want power. Leader Tim Farron has stated that we want to be in government again, to have power to enact our policies, and we also seek power in local government through our elected councillors. At present though we seem all too far away from having power. The 'fightback' after the grim 2015 General Election results seems to have petered out. Yes, numbers of council seats have been won back, and yes, we now have 12 MPs instead of 8. But highly valued MPs have lost, scores of deposits have been forfeited, and we reach only 7% in ...
Residents have brought to my attention concerns that the automated front door at Blackness Post Office has not been working. The electronic door is very helpful for people with mobility difficulties and those using wheelchairs to get into the Post Office, so I wrote to Post Office Limited about the concern raised. I have received the following helpful response from the External Affairs Manager at Post Office Limited : "I have made enquiries about the automatic door mechanism at Blackness Road Post Office. ... The premises and door are the responsibility of the shop owner and it is up to ...
Sat 8th
07:48
The Investigatory Powers (IP) Act; commonly known as the Snoopers' Charter – Is May about to c...
The Canary has the story on its web site – see link above If you really believe in freedom then you will, by instinct, be opposed to Theresa May's Investigatory Powers Act, which in my view has no place in a civilised society. She deserves to come unstuck over this and come to think of it many other things too.
Usually, it's a simple seventy minute trip on Greater Anglia from Ipswich, where I work, to Liverpool Street, our London terminus. However, it isn't the most resilient piece of railway line, and when things go wrong, they can go spectacularly wrong. As a result, and because I normally have to commute from Stowmarket to Ipswich and back, I am a keen observer of Greater Anglia's Twitter feed, watching out for delays and cancellations. Except that, on Thursday afternoon, I was distracted by that 'work' thing. You know how it is, you're in the midst of a project and lose sense ...
